The Harping Monkeyhttp://www.harpingmonkey.com
Mick Bradley harps at the crossroads of story, play, and community.Wed, 03 Sep 2014 16:18:09 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/HarpingMonkeyStudioshttps://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with Live.comAdd to Any Feed ReaderAssumptions and That Ass-Making Thinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/oRdW_IvVYpk/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/assumptions-and-that-ass-making-thing/#commentsWed, 03 Sep 2014 16:18:09 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=9149You know that old saw that says, &#8220;If you assume you make an ass out of you and me&#8221; right? Tired and lame as that saying may be, it still tends to ring true. I get caught up in my own assumptions and biases all the time. And I&#8217;m often guilty of letting those assumptions [&#8230;]You know that old saw that says, “If you assume you make an ass out of you and me” right? Tired and lame as that saying may be, it still tends to ring true.

I get caught up in my own assumptions and biases all the time. And I’m often guilty of letting those assumptions become self-fulfilling prophecies. This is never more true than when I’m making choices about what roleplaying games I want to play, and which people I want to play them with.

If you’ve been listening to my squawking recently you’re probably aware that I’m trying to commit myself to the idea of becoming a better, more welcoming, more collaborative player. I want to encourage a wider diversity of humans to come to the table to play, I want to help make them feel welcome and safe when they get there, and I want to help them express and enjoy themselves freely once the game has begun. It’s pretty much Decent Human Being 101, but in our current play cultures, basic human decency often gets trumped by lesser considerations.

For most of us hetero white males, those lesser considerations usually involve a set of assumptions and biases born from Privilege and from the traditional view of “Gamer Culture*” cherished by so many.

So in order to grow toward my goals as a player and decent human being, I need to check my assumptions.

Here’s the thing I’m discovering, though – my assumptions seem to follow a different pattern than the Stereotypical Gamer Dude. My assumptions, in fact, are mostly directed at the Stereotypical Gamer Dude.

When I am seeking a group to play with, I want at least one woman in the group. Ideally, there will also be someone who’s skin tone and/or cultural heritage are not like mine. If one or both of these things are not true, then I assume that I’m not going to have as much fun at that table as I want. Now to be clear, I don’t think my desire to have diversity at my table is the problem. But to assume that things are going to be boring and typical just because it’s a table full of white guys? Yeah, that’s a problem.

This situation was driven home for me at GenCon a few weeks ago. During one of the Games on Demand slots on Saturday, my new pal Derrick Kapchinsky and I were hoping to get into a Monsterhearts session that Jeromy Hastings was running. Jeromy’s table filled up before our boarding passes were called, but eventually we got into a Monsterhearts game in the overflow room that Trevis Martin was going to run.

And here’s how it went:

So I’m sitting there with Derrick and Trevis and yeah, all three of us are white males. I’m talking about how it is my first-ever game of Monsterhearts, even though I’d played many sessions of other games that used the Apocalypse World engine. We’re chatting about AW, and playing out high-school angsty relationship stuff, when they walk in – two dudes. And in this case I mean Dudes, in that I immediately profile them as typical Dudebros. Two young white geeky-looking guys with most of the stereotypical trappings. They sit at our table, say “hi” in that sort of way that geeky convention-going guys say when they don’t know each other, and then one of them places his large print of a painting of Danaerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones on the empty seat next to him, which happens to be the seat directly opposite me. So I’ve got two young greasy dudes with con-funk sitting next to me and a large painting of the sexified nubile face of the Mother of Dragons staring right at me for the whole session.

And I am making ALL KINDS of assumptions.

Then Trevis asks the guys if they’ve ever played Monsterhearts or any other *World game before, and no, they haven’t. They play D&D, Warhammer, Pathfinder. They’d heard of Dungeon World but never played it, but they wanted to play something and so they chose Monsterhearts because it was available.

And I’m sitting there making A WHOLE SHITLOAD of assumptions.

Trevis, to his credit, explains the themes and basic conceit of Monsterhearts to them, like you’ve gotta do with anyone who doesn’t know what they might be in for, and he asks if they’re cool with that kind of thing. Yep. They’re willing to try it.

Then Trevis explains the X-card concept, and they’re nodding and everything seems fine and dandy, except I’m staring down at the table trying to avoid the languishing gaze of the Danaerys painting and I’m TOTALLY MAKING ASSUMPTIONS.

Next, we’re getting an overview of the scenario Trevis will be facilitating, which is a special thing that Monsterhearts author Avery McDaldno has written for one-shots and conventions. Derrick chooses his character, and there are three left to dole out between me and the two dudes. The three characters are two girls and a guy. I hold back because I’m ASSUMING that those guys probably don’t want to play girl characters, even though one of them will have to, but I want to let them make their choices and then I’ll take the one that remains.

They each choose a girl character.

And of course, I’m sitting there … yeah. ASSUMPTIONS.

Because yeah, two greasy D&D dudes who, by appearances, are barely out of high school themselves, are TOTALLY going to be able to play high-school girls with a sense of authenticity and without pulling out all the shitty stereotypes that most such guys I’d played with often used when playing female characters. Yeah, right.

To be honest, it’s fair to suggest that if I was thinking all this stuff at that point, I should have excused myself from the game. But I wanted to play with Derrick. I wanted to try Monsterhearts. I didn’t want to be a dick, even though I was already being one in my head.

So I stuck around, tried to shut my inner-assumer up, and played.

And my assumptions and I got totally schooled.

The two dudes not only took well to the Monsterhearts rules and the overall thematics, they ended up doing a totally fine job playing female characters with honesty and sincerity. In fact, I’ve got to admit that they both did a much better job authentically playing their characters than the knuckleheaded 40-something who was sitting in my chair did at playing a high-school aged boy. I haven’t felt so personally disconnected from a character in a long time. I couldn’t get a handle on the guy without resorting to my own worn-out stereotypes of what a punk-loner 16-year-old witch who watched his mom eat the mailman for breakfast would act like.

That wasn’t the system, it wasn’t Trevis’ facilitating, it wasn’t the other players. It wasn’t even the painting of Dany. None of that got in my way or hindered my experience. I hindered my own experience. Me and my damn assumptions.

So, although I’ve no doubt that I’ve got a lot of growing to do in the area of being more welcoming and collaborative in playing with women and people of color, it turns out that I’ve ALSO got to get my assumptions and biases in check when it comes to guys who I identify as potential Dudebros, too. My “Mister Enlightened Progressive Story-Player” persona needs to chill the hell out and do some growing, too.

——-

* a term that needs to die. And, if recent events are a good indicator, it IS dying. But not before it screams, yells, wails, and lashes out at everything around it, apparently.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/assumptions-and-that-ass-making-thing/feed/2http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/assumptions-and-that-ass-making-thing/Showing the DudeBros the Doorhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/GVHAIB6COxA/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/signal-boosting/showing-the-dudebros-the-door/#respondFri, 29 Aug 2014 15:32:34 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=9127I don&#8217;t play many video games, but I remain on the informed fringe of that world because many of my friends and peers DO play them, and because so many aspects of video game culture &#8211; and critique thereof &#8211; have direct bearing on the tabletop gaming culture of which I AM a part. The video game [&#8230;]I don’t play many video games, but I remain on the informed fringe of that world because many of my friends and peers DO play them, and because so many aspects of video game culture – and critique thereof – have direct bearing on the tabletop gaming culture of which I AM a part. The video game hobby gets most of the press because it has grown into a huge industry, but almost everything that is going on in that sphere is also going on in the much smaller sphere of tabletop gaming. In other words, both hobbies are engaged in a struggle over issues of representation, equality, and access. And as more women, people of color, and LGBT folk become involved in gaming and/or speak up about the issues, the more entrenched, belligerent, and asinine a certain subset of straight white males has become in their attempts to claim the hobby as their own.

As I continue my quest to write and share more here on The Monkey over the next year and beyond, if you follow along, you’re going to be reading a lot about this stuff. Because it matters to me, and like so many of my peers, I’m tired of having the most visible public face of the hobby I love be represented by a bunch of loud-mouth misogynistic racist dudebros, and even more importantly, I’m tired of watching them do the horrible things they’re doing to people who simply want nothing more than to have equal access and equal representation in the hobby and in the games themselves.

So, I’m going to start off by posting some links to several excellent articles that’ve been written over the past few days by people who are saying things I think are important and potent.

First, in this post from GamesOn.net, Tim Colwill invites any of his readers who are threatened by Equality to exit stage right and not let the door hit them in the ass on the way out:

“So, here’s another change for you: if you really think feminism, or women, are destroying games, or that LGBT people and LGBT relationships have no place in games, or that games in any way belong to you or are “under attack” from political correctness or “social justice warriors”: please leave this website. I don’t want your clicks, I don’t want your hits, I don’t want your traffic. Leave now and please don’t come back.” – Tim Colwill

“I could tell you stories about the voices we’ve lost, the women we’ve scarred, the people we’ve left behind. I want to, but I’m not sure you’d get it. I tweeted earlier today, We should have a war memorial for all of the women we have lost to this. We should lay flowers and grieve and see our reflections in stone. And I meant it. I wish there were a way to honor the people our industry has wronged, and a way to visualize the enormity of what we have lost because of it— some representation of the gap between what games are and what they can be, and the pieces of the bridge between that have fallen away.” – Elizabeth Sampat

Edit: There is also this gem from Leigh Alexander on Gamasutra, where “Gamers” are declared over:

“‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences. Because of video games. ” – Leigh Alexander

There are more I could share. No doubt you can find several others being shared by other bloggers, Facebookers, and G-Plussers. Go be informed. And let’s fight this crap. They wanna take the term “Social Justice Warrior” and make it a derogatory label, I say we own it and claim it and wear it with pride.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/signal-boosting/showing-the-dudebros-the-door/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/signal-boosting/showing-the-dudebros-the-door/Not Today, My Friend. Not Todayhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/51FjyH8cMB8/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/not-today-my-friend-not-today/#commentsThu, 21 Aug 2014 02:27:20 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=9106Several things have been swimming in my brain for the past few days &#8212; My plans and hopes for becoming actively involved in justice/equality/human rights issues. My plans for creating and sharing ideas for growing as a tabletop roleplayer. My reborn itch to run/facilitate games again, and my desire to work on and finish some [&#8230;]Several things have been swimming in my brain for the past few days — My plans and hopes for becoming actively involved in justice/equality/human rights issues. My plans for creating and sharing ideas for growing as a tabletop roleplayer. My reborn itch to run/facilitate games again, and my desire to work on and finish some of the half-baked designs I’ve left lying dormant for years.

Of course a lot of this energy has been fueled by my time at GenCon, which has fueled bursts of similar energies in the past. This time it also has a lot to do with a wakeup call regarding P.G. Holyfield, a brilliant, creative, wonderful human who supported and participated in the Harping Monkey podcasts and website who now is dying of some fucked-up form of cancer that only showed itself after it was far too late.

So yes, I’m energized. My creativity and determination is on the upswing.

Problem is, I’ve been here before. Many, many times. And in almost every case, sooner or later, my own chronic disease, Depression, rears up and drags me down into inactivity, lethargy, and self-doubt. And I quit moving forward. I stop before I’m even really started. I break promises, I turtle up, I go dark.

The subtle, snickering voice that reminds me of my history, of my habit of giving up – it’s been there this past few days, too, waiting around the edges reminding me that the last twenty times I said I was going to get up and do something useful or meaningful or creative, it always went sour.

Here’s a thing, though. Something else happened recently that shook me more than I ever imagined it would. Robin Williams, one of the most brilliant, creative, energetic people in the history of ever, hung himself. His depression got him in the end. His disease reared up one too many times and killed him. And on the one hand, I think it shook me because some voice inside me said, “See, dude, there you go. Depression is an incurable terminal illness. Even someone like Robin Williams couldn’t fight it when all was said and done.”

Well.

You know, I suppose I could try to write something more hopeful and shiny at this point. I could say to myself and to you, “Hey, Bullshit! I’m not going to listen to that voice. My disease is NOT terminal! I’m gonna beat this thing, and all of us who are stricken with it, we can beat this thing! RAWR!”

But that would be very, very dishonest of me.

Because here, now, in this present darkness, I really don’t know. I just don’t.

On the other hand, there is at least one hopeful takeaway for me – and perhaps for many of you – thanks to Robin Williams.

Because yes, the disease eventually beat him. It did. We can’t sugarcoat that and we sure can’t deny it. But oh, dear gods the stuff he accomplished BEFORE the end. The lives he touched and the difference he made, not just as an actor/comedian/celebrity but as a humanitarian. He fought depression all his life, and every single day, until the last one, he held it at bay. Maybe it’s fair to say that even though the disease ultimately beat him, it really only beat him once. The rest of the time, he pretty much kicked it right in the teeth.

I guess my point is, whatever happens in the end, whether Depression gets me or not, whether it gets you or not, I can still – WE can still – fight the damn thing every day, beat it back and not let it bury our creativity, our human uniqueness, our will to be meaningful, our truth.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/not-today-my-friend-not-today/feed/1http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/not-today-my-friend-not-today/True Grit?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/EDDAVl9MDbE/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/true-grit/#respondWed, 13 Nov 2013 17:47:27 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8959Leah chose this video last night for our family tv-time and while we watched it, I must say, I wanted to rail against it big-time, a feeling that increased as the talk went on. As I pondered it afterward though, I realized I wasn&#8217;t pissed off because I thought Dr. Duckworth is wrong, but because [&#8230;]Leah chose this video last night for our family tv-time and while we watched it, I must say, I wanted to rail against it big-time, a feeling that increased as the talk went on. As I pondered it afterward though, I realized I wasn’t pissed off because I thought Dr. Duckworth is wrong, but because I’m forced to admit that – at least in terms of how success is measure in mainstream education and society – she is right.

The thing that she calls “grit” (I’m not fond of that word, honestly, but whatever) is something that I lack in abundance – at least in terms of the success rubric being covered in this talk. So this is a particularly touchy subject for me.

I’ve grown up telling myself that the ease with which I tend to give up on things is mostly a product of two big childhood factors: One, how easy school was for me in general, to the point that I was rarely challenged to try very hard and thus never learned how – and Two, how difficult my home life was, where I was taught to equate “grit” with violence and bitter rage, to the point that I tried to excise any hint of “toughness” from my personality so that I would not grow up to be the violent hair-trigger ball of anger that was my father. Somewhere along the line, those two factors added up to me having lots of trouble mustering the kinds of stick-to-it behaviors that mainstream society puts under the umbrella of “work ethic”. That is apparently what Dr. Duckworth is calling “grit”.

Since I’ve grown up and encountered various types of therapies, I’ve learned to adjust my thinking and cope with this stuff a bit. And I’m still working on it, because I realize it is incorrect to assume that every time things get really tough or challenging or tense that my only two choices are to lash out violently or totally turtle up and make myself as small as possible. I don’t need to take the concept of fight-or-flight to its dramatic extremes and then always choose flight.

Anyhow, here’s the video that got me musing all this stuff today. What do you think? Is “grit” the right answer to the question of success in school and in life? Is the prevailing rubric of “success” even the right question in the first place?

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/true-grit/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/life-and-family/true-grit/Metals and Blues: an -ahem- Exhibitionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/k-pivZAiukE/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/monkey-makery/metals-and-blues-an-ahem-exhibition/#respondFri, 11 Oct 2013 19:20:21 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8944As of today, these six paintings of mine are featured on the walls of Kaelin&#8217;s Coffeehouse in Louisville. Since the contract I signed calls it an exhibition, I guess that&#8217;s what it is. They are for sale at Kaelin&#8217;s, ranging in price from $50 up to $150. If you want one, contact me if you [&#8230;]As of today, these six paintings of mine are featured on the walls of Kaelin’s Coffeehouse in Louisville. Since the contract I signed calls it an exhibition, I guess that’s what it is.

They are for sale at Kaelin’s, ranging in price from $50 up to $150. If you want one, contact me if you have questions about sizes, etc. and I will be happy to see about shipping it to you. We’ll work something out.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/monkey-makery/metals-and-blues-an-ahem-exhibition/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/monkey-makery/metals-and-blues-an-ahem-exhibition/Vegas After Midnight: Aces Highhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/YjE359eo2a4/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/vegas-after-midnight-aces-high/#respondThu, 03 Oct 2013 19:49:30 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8933I&#8217;ve cooked up a set of thematic statements about the four Aces in Vegas After Midnight, and decided to put them in graphic form, like I do. Here they are &#8211; the Ace of Diamonds, the Ace of Spades, the Ace of Hearts and the Ace of Clubs. &#160;I’ve cooked up a set of thematic statements about the four Aces in Vegas After Midnight, and decided to put them in graphic form, like I do.

Here they are – the Ace of Diamonds, the Ace of Spades, the Ace of Hearts and the Ace of Clubs.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/vegas-after-midnight-aces-high/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/vegas-after-midnight-aces-high/Little Man Biggs and His Arrogant Bastards at the Crossroadshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/_nWa5HK3wpA/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/story-play/little-man-biggs-and-his-arrogant-bastards-at-the-crossroads/#respondSat, 14 Sep 2013 01:09:07 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8922I&#8217;m posting this mostly so I can show my play group some images I saved for our Apocalypse World series &#8220;Crossroads&#8221;. First, my character, Biggs &#8211; a big-minded Operator who happens to be a bit height-challenged. &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; Next, his crew, the Arrogant Bastards: Jaim, the bodyguard-enforcer, Gabble [&#8230;]I’m posting this mostly so I can show my play group some images I saved for our Apocalypse World series “Crossroads”.

First, my character, Biggs – a big-minded Operator who happens to be a bit height-challenged.

Eddie Izzard, my inspiration for Biggs

Next, his crew, the Arrogant Bastards:

Jaim, the bodyguard-enforcer, Gabble the old surveillance expert, and Wasted, the urchin filcher.

Now some images of our stronghold, Crossroads, and the water tower where the Arrogant Bastards live:

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/story-play/little-man-biggs-and-his-arrogant-bastards-at-the-crossroads/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/story-play/little-man-biggs-and-his-arrogant-bastards-at-the-crossroads/Apocalypse 2: The Un-Mickeninghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/d1I6266QJHI/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-2-the-un-mickening/#respondThu, 12 Sep 2013 17:09:15 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8917Yesterday&#8217;s post about Vegas After Midnight not being post-apocalyptic generated this excellent comment on Facebook from my buddy-bro Daniel Perez, and I want to immortalize it here so it doesn&#8217;t get lost, because there&#8217;s not a person in the world who doesn&#8217;t get all giddy when somebody expresses something that proves they totally smell what [&#8230;]Yesterday’s post about Vegas After Midnight not being post-apocalyptic generated this excellent comment on Facebook from my buddy-bro Daniel Perez, and I want to immortalize it here so it doesn’t get lost, because there’s not a person in the world who doesn’t get all giddy when somebody expresses something that proves they totally smell what you’re cookin’.

Daniel wrote:

“I also thought it was post-ap at one point, but that quickly changed the more I got to know you, and read/play the setting. It’s a Neil Gaiman-esque world, a Neverwhere of archetypes, a Vegas-focused American Gods riff-off. It’s a dreamscape, and that’s when I truly fell in love with it”.

Woot! sez I.

Okay, but let’s say you might be someone who is not so enthused about my premise for the setting. Maybe you fell in love with VAM when it was all Mad Max and the Presleyans living in the aftermath of an apocalyptic Midnight Madness sale.

That’s cool. If that’s your preferred way to envision it, I want you to get what you want. That’s not the thing I’m prepping, but I have totally great news – you can play a post-apocalyptic flavor of Vegas After Midnight any time you want, with no waiting on me. And I’m going to help you do it. Here’s how:

Go to the Apocalypse World site, and from there, purchase either the PDF or print book, or both.

Get familiar with the AW system – read the game book and draw on the wealth of free supplemental stuff, too.

Pull together the available elements of Vegas After Midnight stuff that you and your group prefer.

Set your campaign in Vegas, throw in a few custom Fronts and maybe a custom Move or three (you really won’t have to add much) and set the AW dials to barf forth whatever types of apocalyptica that you dig.

Seriously. If you do that, you and your group will soon be playing a better post-apocalyptic-flavored take on VAM than anything I – or anyone else – could ever make for you.

Wait, though – maybe you’re one of those odd folk who don’t buy into the notion that Apocalypse World is one big cinnamon-hot bomb-pop of awesome. Maybe you’ve got other ideas for a system. That’s cool, too. If you have a notion you might be able to design a tighter and more suitable game for your group than Vincent Baker has created, then step up and swing. You’re still free to toss whatever VAM stuff you want into the stew and flavor it for your table.

Meanwhile, my peeps and I will be over here doing our Gaiman-esque American-Gods-meets-Rocky-Horror-shindig-in-dystopian-Vegas thing.

Kum. Bay. Ah.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-2-the-un-mickening/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-2-the-un-mickening/Apocalypse? Answering a Vegas After Midnight FAQhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/6c6TqMc4cNQ/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-answering-a-vegas-after-midnight-faq/#respondWed, 11 Sep 2013 15:22:35 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8914Well, actually, I don&#8217;t know how frequent a question needs to be before it becomes a &#8220;frequently&#8221; asked question, but this is a question that got asked a lot in the early days, and yesterday I got a message from a friend asking it again in the context of my recent post on the High [&#8230;]Well, actually, I don’t know how frequent a question needs to be before it becomes a “frequently” asked question, but this is a question that got asked a lot in the early days, and yesterday I got a message from a friend asking it again in the context of my recent post on the High Rollers, so I’m going to address it here as succinctly as Micking possible.

The question as posed yesterday went like this:

If VAM is a post-apocalyptic setting, why do you have dead celebrities like Liberace, Elvis, and Frank Sinatra running around in it, not to mention “genius loci” and someone whose name looks an awful lot like Mary Magdalene?

My answer is this: To me, Vegas After Midnight is not a post-apocalyptic setting.

Whut-WHAT??

Vegas After Midnight is not a post-apocalyptic setting.

I actually haven’t thought of it that way for a long, long time. True, it definitely started out that way, and even after it began to shift in my mind away from that, I allowed people to keep thinking of it in those terms because many people (including David Moore) seemed to prefer to think of “Midnight” as some sort of apocalypse and thus thought of the game as taking place in its aftermath. But for me, the thematics and tone of the setting gradually – but strongly – shifted away from that.

In rpg terms that might be familiar to some of you, it’s like this. Even though I love Vincent Baker’s game Apocalypse World, and am considering hacking it to play VAM with, the setting-premise of Apocalypse World is not what I’m going for with Vegas After Midnight. The closest setting-premise analogue I can think of for what I am going for with VAM is the Mad City from Fred Hick’s Don’t Rest Your Head. That’s a big reason why I once planned to do VAM as a DRYH hack/supplement. I’m no longer planning to go that way system-wise, but the tone and feel – not to mention the rationale for dispensing with all those “why” and “how” questions that come with post-apocalyptic stuff – are right in the ballpark.

So, if you’re following the newly-energized progress of VAM and reading these posts, you’re in better shape if you toss out the notion of an apocalypse altogether. Instead, think of Vegas After Midnight as a dystopian nightmare-scape fable, a pastiche of twisted archetypes and symbolism as a stage for exploring our identities, our obligations, our so-called destinies, and our will to be The Player rather than The Played in the Game of Existence.

And then turn it up to eleven and break off the knob. Because yeah, The Glitter Man and Mister Vegas are pissed, and they’re coming back to town to blow it all to hell.

Come to think of it, I guess that means Vegas After Midnight is a PRE-Apocalyptic setting. Muahaha.

]]>http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-answering-a-vegas-after-midnight-faq/feed/0http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/apocalypse-answering-a-vegas-after-midnight-faq/Enter the High Rollershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HarpingMonkeyStudios/~3/cqMXJGpuTy0/
http://www.harpingmonkey.com/rpg-stuff/vegas-after-midnight-setting/enter-the-high-rollers/#commentsMon, 09 Sep 2013 18:10:28 +0000http://www.harpingmonkey.com/?p=8910Here&#8217;s a look at the 18 High Rollers represented with their card ranks in Vegas After Midnight. And to help you get a feel for where i&#8217;m going with this. here are a few notes: Each of the suits is symbolic of a general realm of evocative aspects: SPADES covers the realm of Chaos, Destruction, [&#8230;]

Here’s a look at the 18 High Rollers represented with their card ranks in Vegas After Midnight. And to help you get a feel for where i’m going with this. here are a few notes:

Each of the suits is symbolic of a general realm of evocative aspects:

The ACES of each suit are personifications of the quintessential nature of a realm. They are each a sort of genius loci of Vegas, but split into distinct personalities based on their suit. Although they certainly can take form and interact within the world, I tend to think of them more as powerful ideas and archetypes rather than specific NPCs. In a sense, you could think of them as the ones who are running The Game – at least, they probably think they are.

The QUEENS, KINGS and JACKS are all actual NPCs who are rulers of the major factions. They are as human as the players. They all have names, personalities, and distinct character traits (which I’ll share later on). They don’t go around in-game thinking of themselves as “The Queen of Hearts” or “The Jack of Clubs”, but those are the archetypal roles that the Madness has cast them in. Their suits influence their High Concept in the same way as the player characters – as a strong tendency toward a particular realm of behavior and worldview. It’s like a mantle that a character takes on, and if, for example, someone were to challenge and overthrow Lady Saxe, the particular NPC who is the current Queen of Clubs/Magician, they would take on the mantle of the Queen of Clubs and act under the pull of that archetype. It’s like with the Dread Pirate Roberts, see? There’s only one DPR, but he’s been multiple guys over the years.

Speaking of titles and names, those of you who’ve played earlier versions of VAM and/or read the earlier fiction and posts will recognize some familiar characters in the chart, even though they’re not named here. Also, of course, anyone with decent pop-culture intel and some skill with Google-fu will note the not-so-subtle homages to famous personalities of the past who are tied to the history and spectacle of Las Vegas. A few of the monikers in this list, though, will befuddle those of you looking for a Vegas-celebrity analog, because only about half of the High Rollers are based on celebrities like Elvis or Sinatra. Most of the others are not based on a person but on an archetype drawn from the theme of a particular casino-resort. And a couple of them you might wonder what the hell they’re doing on this chart at all. Well, eventually I’ll tell you.